Twelve-year-old Ellie Honeywell regards herself as an amateur palaeontologist. When Tom invites her to a fossil dig near Winton, she thinks her fossil-finding fantasies have come true. But he has invited his close friend, Peta as well. She is the most annoying person Ellie has ever met and it’s not long before they clash. This animosity comes to a head on a weekend camping trip.
In the hills behind the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Stampede site, a gang of fossil thieves mines for valuable opal fossils. They’re not about to let some kids jeopardise their plans to escape undetected.
If Ellie and Peta are to outwit and survive these ruthless criminals, they need to become allies.Another tale interweaves through Ellie’s story – that of a small ornithopod trying to survive as a plant-eater in a land of terrifying flesh eaters. Like Ellie, the small dinosaur must find courage and determination to survive.